At least two neo-Nazi groups are fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine, throwing into question Moscow’s claims of “denazifying” its neighbor, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday, citing a confidential intelligence report. The document shared with German ministries by the BND intelligence service does not provide the exact number of far-right fighters, but identifies them as…
Moscow will consider exchanging prisoners from Ukraine’s Azov battalion for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman close to President Vladimir Putin, a Russian negotiator said on Saturday. “We are going to study the possibility,” said Leonid Slutsky, a senior member of Russia’s negotiating team on Ukraine, speaking from the separatist city of Donetsk in southeastern…
The carcasses of charred buildings stand amid the lush greenery in what remains of the once bustling Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. After weeks of siege and strikes much of the city on the coast of the Sea of Azov has been reduced to a wasteland. As the last Ukrainian troops in the town surrendered…
As the death toll from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rises, throwing Kremlin imperialism into sharper focus, activists representing the indigenous non-Slavic peoples of Russia are doubling down on efforts to rally supporters behind demands for greater autonomy. “War is a trigger for greater national consciousness,” Ruslan Gabbasov, the head of the Bashkir National Political Center,…
Russia on Saturday published a list of 963 leading Americans, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman banned from entering the country in retaliation for similar moves by Washington since the offensive in Ukraine. Those named in the list on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website also include U.S.…
Russia has declared victory in its months-long operation to capture the strategic port of Mariupol after Ukraine ordered the last of its troops holed up in the city’s Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms. Moscow’s flattening of Mariupol has drawn multiple accusations of war crimes, including over a deadly attack on a maternity ward,…
At this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov spoke out strongly — and obscenely — against the war Russia has launched in Ukraine but was criticized for wanting economic sanctions lifted from one of his backers, oligarch Roman Abramovich. Serebrennikov’s film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” was the only film from Russia presented at the…
Ukraine on Friday ordered its last troops holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks to lay down their arms, while Russia said its months-long operation to capture the strategic port city is now complete. Russia’s flattening of Mariupol has drawn multiple accusations of war crimes, including over a deadly attack on a maternity ward, and Ukraine…
Russia on Friday added two high-profile Kremlin critics to its list of “foreign agents”: former chess champion Garry Kasparov and ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The infamous label, reminiscent of the “enemies of the people” of the Soviet period, is used extensively against opponents, journalists and human rights activists accused of conducting foreign-funded political activities. Such “foreign…
Fears over global food shortages as the Ukraine war grinds on are spurring calls for a safe corridor for ships to exit the Black Sea, but the logistics are daunting and would need Russian cooperation. Dozens of container ships are blocked in Ukrainian ports that are surrounded by Russian forces, choking off exports of wheat,…
Russian soldiers preparing to be sent to fight in Ukraine are required to buy personal equipment at their own expense, according to several servicemen who spoke to The Moscow Times’ Russian Service on condition of anonymity. Some of the items apparently not provided by the army include footwear, body armor, bandages and tourniquets. “If they…
President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for “technological sovereignty,” saying Russia has been hit by numerous cyberattacks since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine. “The number of cyberattacks, including complex ones, has increased many times over” since the start of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine in February, Putin said during a meeting of Russia’s Security Council. …
Clouds of thick black dust blanketed Siberia’s coal mining region of Kemerovo, local news outlet Sibdepo reported Thursday. Residents of the mining towns of Kiselevsk and Belovo shared footage showing massive clouds of coal dust covering the streets amid strong winds and thunderstorms. Locals said the coal dust was brought from the coal mines surrounding the…
Students in Siberia have opened a 50-year-old time capsule containing a wish for peace and international friendship from their Soviet peers, local media reported Thursday. The Soviet students’ message of hope for a peaceful future was unearthed as Russia faces unprecedented economic and political isolation in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. To mark…
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the CEO of the shelved Nord Stream 2 project Matthias Warnig resigned Friday from the board of directors of Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft amid pressure over the war in Ukraine. “Gerhard Schroeder and Matthias Warnig have informed [us] of the impossibility of extending their service on the company’s…
Russia’s largest lender Sberbank has sold its digital ecosystem to an obscure new company in what experts call an attempt to shield those services from Western sanctions, media reported Thursday. Sber said it sold its video, audio and sports streaming platforms, as well as its cloud technology and biometric system research center, on Tuesday “as…
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday Moscow was nearing full control of Ukraine’s eastern separatist region of Luhansk. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24 under the guise of protecting the Russian-speaking population there, especially in the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia recognized the independence of the…
Incessant bombardment has turned Ukraine’s Donbas region into “hell,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as the first post-invasion trial of a Russian soldier for war crimes neared its closely watched climax Friday. Zelensky’s government received a fresh boost as the U.S. Congress approved a $40 billion aid package, including funds to enhance Ukraine’s armored vehicle fleet…
A Siberian entrepreneur who played the Ukrainian national anthem in public has been found guilty of “Nazi propaganda,” a local court said Thursday in the latest example of Russia’s ongoing crackdown on wartime dissent. The Tyumen resident, identified as Vladimir Fofanov by the OVD-Info police-monitoring website, was shown performing the anthem on a piano set up on an…
Videos and eyewitness testimony provided evidence of Russian troops executing eight Ukrainian men in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, implicating them in a possible war crime, The New York Times reported Thursday. “I was shot and I fell down,” the lone survivor of the March 4 execution, 43-year-old builder Ivan Skyba, recounted to the NYT. …
The United Nations on Thursday urged Russia and Ukraine to “build on” contacts and coordination that enabled the evacuation operations from Mariupol in order to resume stalled peace talks. The successful operations to evacuate civilians and later fighters from the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in the devastated Ukrainian port points the way back towards broader negotiations…
The Kremlin said Thursday it was important to ensure basic living conditions in war-torn Ukraine as signs multiplied that Moscow was seeking to permanently occupy or even annex the pro-Western country’s southeast. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 but Moscow has repeatedly stressed it is not seeking to occupy Ukrainian…
The Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Kherson region said Thursday that the area will “soon become part” of the Russian Federation. De-facto governor Volodymyr Saldo was installed by Russian forces after they took control of the southern Ukrainian region in early March. “We are looking at the Russian Federation as our own country because it is…
May 19, 2022. – ROSATOM State Corporation and the Bolivian Agency for Nuclear Energy (ABEN) jointly published a children’s book “Nuclear Science and Technology in El Alto”. The presentation was held at a school in El Alto and brought together more than 400 students from local educational institutions. The main characters of the book are…
McDonald’s will sell its Russian restaurants to Siberian businessman Alexander Govor, the U.S. fast-food giant announced Thursday. Govor, who co-owns oil firm NefteKhimServis, already operates 25 of the chain’s restaurants in Russia. Once approved by regulators, the deal will see the 62-year-old take over all 850 McDonald’s locations within Russia under a new brand, business…
Ukrainian prosecutors on Thursday requested a life sentence for the first Russian soldier on trial for war crimes since the start of Moscow’s invasion, AFP journalists in the courtroom reported. The prosecution asked the judge to sentence the 21-year-old Russian army sergeant to “life imprisonment” for killing 62-year-old civilian Oleksandr Shelipov in the first days…
Russia is approaching Chinese companies to join in its bid to revive the Soviet-era Moskvitch car, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday, citing two unnamed sources. The report comes days after Moscow’s mayor announced plans to bring back the Moskvitch (Muscovite) by nationalizing a Renault majority-owned factory that the French automaker handed over in its…
Russia had taken steps to prepare itself for a food crisis even before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday. Russia and Ukraine alone produce 30 percent of the global wheat supply. Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and a barrage of unprecedented international sanctions on Russia have disrupted supplies…
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, on the surface, everyday life in Moscow has remained fairly unchanged. But amid the usual urban clamor, many have noticed the growing presence of Soviet-era symbols and icons throughout the city, often alongside motifs designed to drum up pro-war sentiment.
Timofei Voronov, 21, a cultural studies student at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE), was summoned to see the prestigious university’s deputy head in March after being detained at an anti-war rally. Along with several other students, Voronov was shown a list of new laws at the March meeting, including those that mandate long jail…
A Russian rock legend has been charged with “discrediting” the Russian military after making an anti-war speech at a show in central Russia. Yury Shevchuk, the frontman of 1980s rock band DDT, is already known for his direct confrontations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, support for anti-Kremlin activist collective Pussy Riot and opposition to Russia’s…
A new investigation has named the former director of the Bavarian State Ballet as the partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s second-eldest daughter. Igor Zelensky, 52, is reportedly in a serious, long-term relationship with Katerina Tikhonova, 35, widely believed to be Putin’s daughter, Russian news outlet iStories and German news site Der Spiegel reported Thursday.…
The Research Institute of Atomic Reactors in Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk Region, has started the fourth irradiation cycle of fuel assemblies with VVER type fuel rods in the MIR research reactor, the reactor tests have been lasting since early 2019. These rods have four various combinations of cladding and fuel matrix materials. The fuel pellets were made…
Russian superstar ballerina Olga Smirnova quit the Bolshoi Ballet over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine but says the famed dance company will outlive the vagaries of war. “History changes, but the Bolshoi stays,” Smirnova told AFP as she rehearsed in Amsterdam, where she joined the Dutch National Ballet in March. Smirnova, who made headlines when she…
Russia’s defense ministry said Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered this week at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol. “Over the past 24 hours, 771 militants of the Azov nationalist regiment surrendered,” the ministry said in its daily briefing on the conflict. “In total, since May 16, 1,730 militants…
First concrete ceremony has taken place at Xudapu NPP Unit 4 constructed under the Russian VVER-1200 design. The construction has reached its active phase. “The project for construction of two new units of generation III+ at Xudapu NPP is being implemented according to the schedule, even ahead of schedule. The Russian party performs its obligations…
Russia reported Thursday its second civilian death since the start of the invasion of Ukraine as fighting near Russia’s border with Ukraine intensified. “Another enemy attack that took place at dawn unfortunately ended in tragedy,” Roman Starovoit, the governor of western Russia’s Kursk region, wrote on Telegram. A truck driver making a delivery to a…
A top Russian official claimed Wednesday that Europe’s largest nuclear power station – that was captured by Russian forces in Ukraine – will provide electricity to Russia . Ukraine’s energy providers dismissed the comments on the seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as a technical impossibility. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, on a visit to the…
Russia is shutting down the Moscow offices of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in retaliation to Ottawa banning Russia’s state-run RT and RT France networks, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced Wednesday. The Foreign Ministry is also withdrawing the press accreditations and canceling the visas of CBC’s journalists in Russia, Zakharova told reporters. “A decision…
The first Russian soldier on trial in Ukraine for war crimes during Moscow’s invasion pleaded guilty on Wednesday, facing possible life imprisonment in Kyiv. Asked in court if he was guilty of the allegations, including war crimes and premeditated murder, 21-year-old sergeant Vadim Shishimarin responded “yes.” The captured soldier is accused of killing a 62-year-old…
Ukrainian film director, producer, and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a TV series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, Rodnyansky said, charted the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer to president. Rodnyansky described the series as a…
Ukrainian film director, producer and media mogul Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a television series based on the book “All the Kremlin’s Men” by acclaimed Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, Rodnyansky told Variety magazine. The series, which Rodnyansky described as a Russian “House of Cards,” will chart the rise of Vladimir Putin from a minor KGB officer…
Google’s Russian branch has initiated a bankruptcy procedure over its inability to pay a $100-million fine for keeping up content Moscow deems illegal, media reported Wednesday as Russia continues to intensify its pressure on Big Tech following its invasion of Ukraine. A Moscow court fined Google 7.2 billion rubles ($113.5 million) in December 2021 for…
Google’s Russian branch has initiated a bankruptcy procedure over its inability to pay a $100-million fine for keeping up content Moscow deems illegal, media reported Wednesday as Russia continues to intensify its pressure on Big Tech following its invasion of Ukraine. Google confirmed the reports the next day. “Google Russia has published a notice of…
A meeting on digitalization of NPP construction processes has been held in Moscow office of ASE JSC (a part of ROSATOM’s Engineering Division). Its main topic was import substitution and use of own digital developments for NPP design and construction, as well as for optimization of internal processes in the Engineering Division. The meeting was…
Talks aimed at ending hostilities in Russia’s nearly three-month attack on Ukraine have come to a standstill because of a “lack of willingness” on Kyiv’s part, the Kremlin said Wednesday. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have held several rounds of peace talks since the start of the invasion in February. But the talks have lost momentum…
The first RITM-200 reactor for the serial new-generation Yakutia icebreaker has been manufactured and prepared for shipment at the production site of JSC ZiO-Podolsk (a unit of Atomenergomash, ROSATOM’s mechanical engineering division). The reactor weighs 147.5 tons, its height is 7.3 meters, diameter is 3.3 meters. The out-of-gauge cargo will be delivered on a special…
Moscow said Wednesday it was expelling 34 “employees of French diplomatic missions” in a tit-for-tat move following the expulsion of Russian diplomats from France as part of joint European action over Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. “Thirty-four employees of French diplomatic missions in Russia have been declared persona non grata,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a…
Moscow on Wednesday kicked out diplomats from France, Italy and Spain in retaliation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from European countries as part of a joint action against Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was expelling 34 “employees of French diplomatic missions” in Russia and gave them two…
The de factor leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia has announced that the territory will hold a referendum on joining Russia on July 17. But can the vote actually go ahead and would the outcome change anything? Holding the vote will be complicated by the fact that the South Ossetian leader, Anatoliy Bibilov,…
Belarus has introduced the death penalty for attempts to carry out acts of terrorism, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday, charges that several opposition activists face in the ex-Soviet country. Belarus — a close ally of Russia that has supported its military offensive in Ukraine — is the only country in Europe that continues to carry…
Russia said Wednesday that another 694 Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant have surrendered over the past 24 hours as Kyiv’s effort to retain its last holdout in the devastated southern port comes to a close. They join the 265 soldiers that Russia’s Defense Ministry said had surrendered earlier, bringing the total to 959 in…
A Russian gymnast who sported an insignia linked to his country’s invasion of Ukraine on a medal podium has been banned for one year, a disciplinary panel said. Ivan Kuliak’s singlet had the letter ‘Z’ prominently placed as he stood next to Ukraine’s Kovtun Illia, the gold medalist at a World Cup event in Doha in March. The ‘Z’ has been…
Russia spent more than $300 million per day on defense last month as its invasion of Ukraine continued to drag on, according to Finance Ministry data, more than doubling its pre-war defense spending. Defense spending has increased every month since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February as Russia’s Armed Forces failed…
A village and a sugar refinery near Russia’s border with Ukraine were shelled late Tuesday, according to officials. Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the village of Bezymeno 50 kilometers northwest of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv was damaged in an attack that wounded at least one person. “There is some damage. A door-to-door assessment…
This article was corrected with the date of Russia’s occupation of Kherson and updated with details about Russian confiscations of agricultural goods and equipment in the surrounding region. A top Russian official has promised to revive the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson by rebuilding roads, bridges and buildings destroyed as a result of the…
Precision-guided missiles have been one of the weapons of choice for the Russian Armed Forces since invading Ukraine in late February. These domestically-produced missiles have been responsible for some of Russia’s most deadly attacks in Ukraine, including on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and on a train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of…
Mortgage loans in Russia fell by their largest margin ever in April despite government measures to avert the economic fallout from war-related Western sanctions, the RBC news website reported Tuesday. Russian banks approved 37,200 mortgage loans totaling 130.5 billion rubles ($2 billion) in April 2022. That marked a 75% drop from March, when banks issued 529.3…
Moscow said on Tuesday that two employees of Finland’s embassy in Russia will have to leave the country in response to a similar move by Helsinki. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned Finland’s ambassador to Moscow and expressed its “strong protest” against the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from neighboring Finland…
Russia said Tuesday that 265 Ukrainian soldiers holed up in Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant had “surrendered,” contradicting Kyiv’s account that the evacuated soldiers would be exchanged later. “The surrender of fighters from the Azov nationalist unit and Ukrainian servicemen blocked in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol began yesterday,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a…